In recent years, traditional object, part and component manufacturing processes, which generally included varying forms of molding or machining of output products, have expanded to include a new class of techniques globally referred to as “additive manufacturing” or AM techniques. These techniques, as currently implemented, generally involve processes in which layers of additive material, sometimes toxic or otherwise hazardous in an unfinished state, are sequentially deposited on the in-process 3D object according to a particular material deposition and curing scheme. As each layer is added in the 3D object forming process, the new layer of deposited marking material is added and adhered to the one or more already existing layers. Each AM layer may then be individually cured, at least partially, prior to deposition of any next AM layer in the 3D object build process.
AM manufacturing techniques include, but are not limited to, those techniques that have come to be referred to broadly as “3D printing” techniques usable for producing 3D printed objects. 3D printing techniques employ one or more processes that are adapted from, and appear in many respects to be similar to, well-known processes for forming two-dimensional (2D) printed images on image receiving media substrates. Significant differences in the output structures produced by the 3D printing techniques are generally based on (1) a composition of the deposited materials that are used to form the output 3D printed objects from the 3D printer; and/or (2) a number of passes made by the “print” heads in depositing comparatively large numbers of successive (and very thin) layers of the deposition material to build up the layers to the form of the output 3D printed objects.
A current AM process includes printing and developing slices of an object onto individual substrates, manually stacking these substrates, and then bonding the layers together using heat and pressure to form a solid object. Stacking the substrates is currently a manual procedure since a conventional blank die punching onto a solid baseplate needs to have the desired part pulled away, often to the side where they can be manually stacked. If the desired part is not pulled away, the cut sections randomly fall through to a catch basin while trimmings are pulled through the die. It would be beneficial to speed up this process.